Hi folks,

I wanted to make a SVCD, so I used TMPGenc 2.53 with 2pass VBR for encoding the video. I set the Minimum Bitrate = 1600, Maximum Bitrate = 2400 and Average Bitrate = 1800 because I knew, my Pioneer DV444 DVD-Player would have problems if Bitrate would fall below about 1400 at SVCD (the speed of the drive falls from 2x to 1x and you get display-errors).

But nevertheless I got some errors after VERY calm scenes. So I examined the video-file with the bitrate-viewer and found that the bitrate sank far below the minimum bitrate I entered in TMPGenc.

Anyone else experienced something like that? Did I do something wrong?

No, you did nothing wrong.
Tmpgenc does not respect the max bitrate either.
I really wish the developers would fix this!!!!
How hard is it to force the mpeg encoder to never go below an
absolute number and never go ABOVE an absolute number?
Its really frustrating for me too.

Are you checking the pad if lower option? Also, if you are using Bitview to view the bitrate, it does not show the correct rate if you're using 23.976 w/pullup. You need to subtract about 20% from the shown values.

Correct, use the padding option. This should correct it when the bitrate falls below a certain point, but this is not a fault of TMPGenc. It happens in most encoders as the bitrate settings are only nominal and not absolute.

Also the problem you are having with display problems when the bitrate drops below 1400kbps shouldn't be happening as a DVD will regularly drop it's bitrate below this point and theres no problem with your DVD's right.
If you are burning your SVCD's at high speed then this is probably your problem.
You should never burn above 4x as this will give serious disply problems on most DVD players and even then lower speeds will give even better playback.
On my Toshiba anything above 4x jerks like hell with blocks popping up all over the place with loud squelches in the sound, but at 4x the disk plays nearly perfect with the odd jerk and at 2x the disk plays flawlessly every time.

ASHY

I just noticed you have a Pioneer DVD player. You probably will have this problem on this machine as it's very finicky about bitrates.
Still try the burning option.

ASHY

Thanks for your suggestions, I always burn my VCD/SVCD´s with 16x speed and never had any problems. I will try to use the "padding" option, hope this helps.

16X! I'm suprised you don't get any problems with this. You probably do, but you don't realise it is your burning speed.
Even on sites such as vcdhelp.com the recommended is 4x and on on some of the other encoder software makers they recommend no more than two, so i'd give this a try if your problems persist.

ASHY

I have an SMR encoded video I want to convert to a VCD PAL MPEG1 file, but an error comes up saying "File 'filename' can not open, or unsupported. The file itself can be viewed perfectly in Windows Media Player, is there, or will there be support for these types of avi files? or is there another way to convert to MPEG1?

try increasing the avi vfw and the directshow filters.

Techno

Does anyone have instructions on how to go from divx to mpeg? I am a newbie.

FOrgot to add. I want DVD to be the final format. divx to mpeg to dvd.

load in the avi file in TMPGENC

choose a template, or create your own.

encode!

Then after this, you may wish to encode the MPEG file to dvd again.

Techno

I am making dvds. Should I encode via "cbr" or "vbr?"

VBR because variable bitrate!

Techno

I would use 'Constant quality(CQ)'.
This is similar to 'Automatic VBR (CQ_VBR)' but gives better quality and file sizes and if you examine the bitrates and quantization you will find it encodes more or less the same as a two pass encode.

ASHY

yeh, that's right, I would use that too, but I thought it was a choice of VBR or CBR!

Techno

What do you mean? (CQ) is VBR.

ASHY

My Mjpeg AVI files captured with Pinacle's DC10 Studi card shows only lines. Any clues about what I can do converting to mpgs?
Thanks
pb

Tried most of the above....little success!

Got toolame to work in TMPGEnc but the sound is no better. (bearing in mind, when playing it in original .avi format
the sound is ok). Besweet doesn't seem to work in XP (even through command line), and the same goes for avi2mpg1.exe.
Virtual dub doesn't accept avi. files! (by this point I'm pulling my hair out). An finally where can I find wavelab (no
mention of it in www.vcdhelp.com)!?

Can you still help me?

I used besweet 2 days ago in XP, worked fine, the demo version of wavelab does not save the file/encode as MP3.

search for it on google.com

Techno

Toolame will not make a jot of difference to the sound. it is the samplerate converter that is the problem not the audio converter.
What do you mean Virtual dub doesn't accept AVI files?. This is it's main process. You must not have the required codec installed for your file if thats the case or you have a Directshow problem.

Give Goldwave a try. It's free to download and doesn't impose any restrictions.
http://www.goldwave.com/release.html

ASHY

My Mjpeg AVI files captured with Pinacle's DC10 Studi card shows only lines. Any clues about what I can do converting to mpgs?
Thanks
pb

I have an SMR encoded video I want to convert to a VCD PAL MPEG1 file, but an error comes up saying "File 'filename' can not open, or unsupported. The file itself can be viewed perfectly in Windows Media Player, is there, or will there be support for these types of avi files? or is there another way to convert to MPEG1?

hi there.

try to increase the directshow filters, the avi vfw and the aviopen dml filters to a higher priority in the environment settings.

this should work, if not then I guess TMPGENC does not support SMR files.

Techno

converting to MPEG1 from .mov file (using QT filter) and getting huge file 7.5MB compared to 850kb using a different source with same 2-pass VBR or AutoVBR settings.
Got any ideas?

MPEG is completly different than QT files. It also depends on the motion and the settings you have used, this is why it becomes larger.

Techno

I am setting the output for video @ 120kbps and audio 32kbs. It's a 40 sec file so the output should be <1MB whatever the source (AVI or QT). So why is it 850kbyte from AVI and 7.5MB from QT?

because they work differently, they are different formats! :)

Techno

Hi,

Is there a way to purchase a tmpgenc licence securely? The order page is http:// only (unencrypted), not https://

I don't want to send my card info in clear text format.

To be honest I am also not too ecstatic about the fact that pegasys-inc seems to use a simple form submitted to their own web site, rather than a trusted third party biller like ibill that handles the nitty gritty of the card transaction.

I want to buy a licence! But not like this!

BTW, does any official electronic documentation exist for tmpgenc, apart from the popup help shown when you move the mouse over various fields?

Cheers.

First of all, this is wrong place to discuss for this matter.
You should look for certain E-mail address at:
http://www.pegasys-inc.com/

> Is there a way to purchase a tmpgenc licence securely? The order page is
> http:// only (unencrypted), not https://
You have made only one steps, so you have not seen "https".
If you enter and make 2 steps at purchase page (which you have visited),
you will see "https".

Hi, sorry for putting my foot in it, you are right.

I couldn't find an email address. I tried the support form but it requires a lot of detail about my system when I just want to inform tmpgenc about problems I had with purchasing - and when I click on back all the fields are erased, so I have to start again!

I was wrong about the unencrypted signup, the final purchase is encrypted. Please ignore my other message.

However, there are two problems with the purchase sequence:

1. The first page that asked for my phone number wouldn't accept "+" (the international country code symbol)

2. The second page reports the error "(Enter your telephone number with HALF size numbers only)" ... I think it's expecting me to enter a Japanese phone number. I had to enter "000000000" to get it to go through.

I *almost* gave up in frustration, but I finally have my serial number now. tmpgenc may want to review the purchase process because these problems may hamper sales. Thanks for a great product!

Cheers.

I have an SMR encoded video I want to convert to a VCD PAL MPEG1 file, but an error comes up saying "File 'filename' can not open, or unsupported. The file itself can be viewed perfectly in Windows Media Player, is there, or will there be support for these types of avi files? or is there another way to convert to MPEG1?

hmmm....

Try increasing the avi vfw and the directshow and the aviopendml priorities to a higher level

Techno

OK...computer monitors like non interlace and tvs like interlace....so with TMPGENC under the VCD template it encodes non-interlace under the video tab.

When you select the DVD template it encodes interlace. Is this because it assumes a tv monitor playback? and the VCD template assumes a computer monitor playback?

So do we need to make 2 versions of our videos? One for the computer and one for the DVD player hooked up to the tv?

One more...if you are doing a DVD template and have "deinterlace" selected
under the Advanced tab.....the encode mode(under the Video tab) will be interlace because of the DVD template...which over rides the other?

THanks,
Steve

Hmm I think I have been doing some of this stuff.

When I was converting a DVD to SVCD. I think it is explained what to use in a guide somewhere, think it was purplemans guides and you can find a link to them from http://doom9.net under his links :)

DVD's are interlaced! :)

You do not need 2 versions at all. If you encode as DVD on the PC, then that is fine, you can burn this to a DVDR and play it on the DVD player (provided if your DVD player supports DVDR) The quality would, mostly, be the same.

Techno

..... OK TECHNO AND OTHER GUYS: YOU ARE GETTING CLOSER TO WHAT I'AM NOT ABLE TO UNDERSTAND : AND IF I MAKE A VCD OR SVCD TO BE RUN ON BOTH (PC AND TV) WHAT TEMPLATE I HAVE TO CHOOSE ?
TKS
MARCO